How far will your handspun yarn go?

CALCULATING HOW FAR YOUR HAND-SPUN WILL GO

Knitting on the diagonal

Following on from 'A Fill In Project':-

This is what I decided to make with the yarn.

One of the most worrying things, when you have used all your fibre and spun some yarn, is whether you have sufficient to complete a project.
If you are to knit something like a simple scarf or even a waistcoat, as in my earlier post -
'Hand spun, Naturally dyed Waistcoat', is to knit a 10cm square and weigh the yarn used, then calculate the area of knitted fabric your project needs, then 'do the sums'.

If you decide to knit a scarf then the calculation can be done while beginning the scarf with little chance of having to pull your work out to begin the project. Here I amusing the yarn from 'A Fill In' project.

First weigh your spun yarn - I had 200g.

Cast on 3 stitches.

Increase by one stitch at the beginning of each row. Continue until you have used 10th of you yarn. In this case I knitted 20g.

Measure the sides of the triangle - cm. You will be able to knit a strip/scarf that is 10 times as long as the side of the triangle you have knitted.

From now on increase a stitch at the beginning of the next row, decrease one stitch at the beginning of the following row. Continue in this way until you have the same weight of yarn that it took to knit the first triangle.

Decrease at the beginning of every following row until only 3 sts remain. Knit all three together to cast off.

Your project doesn't have to be all KNIT stitches! Here is a scarf knitted (yet to be pressed) for my dear friend Sue Bryce.

To keep the edges tidy and straight I knitted the first 5 stitches of each row, using purl in a random number of rows to create some texture. Well, I say random, I usually use the fibonacci sequence of numbers when I am 'designing'.

A 'Fill In Project

A 'FILL IN' PROJECT

   With time to spare, but waiting for some more fibre to continue spinning some yarn for a weaving project, I turned to my stash.
   I was hoping to find an unspun hand dyed roving but finding non I turned instead to some batts I had made for sale. I decided to try some fractal spinning.
Fractal spinning is a fancy name for a particular way to divide up your coloured fibre for spinning.

   I divided each batt into its component colours. The first I spun in the order it was in the original batt, navy, blues, lime and green.

  

   The second batt I divided further, each colour in half. (12.5 g each)The second half of each colour I divided in half again. (6.25g each)

   I began spinning the four individual colours on one bobbin. (Unfortunately I didn't take  a photo)

on a second bobin I spun the 12.5 g of each of the colours in the same order as before. After which I spun 6.5 gram of each followed by the remaining fibre.

   With all the 'singles' spun I began to ply them together, intending there to be 2 skeins of 100g.

Part way through this process some small visitors, attracted to my spinning wheel and its interesting mechanical possibilities, broke the yarn, but no harm was done. So, the first 100g skein became 2 skeins, those at the top of the photo. 

   Today I have wound the washed skeins, hoping I have the colour sequence correct, into three nice, squishy centre pull balls ready for knitting.